| [00:00.650] |
Out in the open ocean, they hatch into larvae |
| [00:04.650] |
and become part of the vast plankton soup |
| [00:09.300] |
And it's not just fish that depend on the whim of the open ocean to disperse their larvae |
| [00:14.130] |
Land crabs and other crustaceans do too |
| [00:18.980] |
But there's a deadline They each have a set number of days to reach new islands |
| [00:25.780] |
Astonishingly,these larvae are able to home in on the smells and sounds of distant reefs |
| [00:33.480] |
Out of the millions of larvae that set off only a small fraction will succeed in colonising new islands |
| [00:40.610] |
Curiously, some freshwater fish also spawn at sea |
| [00:45.500] |
and use the sea to help their larvae colonise rivers |
| [00:49.990] |
These freshwater eels in the Solomons began their lives hundreds of miles away |
| [00:55.040] |
possibly in a deep sea trench off New Guinea |
| [00:58.430] |
Yet as larvae and then elvers,they made their way into these freshwater pools |
| [01:06.220] |
and over 40 years,grew into two-metre giants |